HEADACHE IN SWEDEN - THE IMPORTANCE OF WORKING-CONDITIONS

Headache is a common health problem that causes individual suffering a s well as public expense. Because epidemiological studies have shown t hat headache is mast prevalent among persons younger than 55 years, th e influence of working conditions is of interest. In this study, we ex amined the importance of working conditions as a risk factor for frequ ent headache among the general Swedish population. Data from the Swedi sh Survey of Living conditions for the 2-year period, 1988 and 1989, w ere used. in this survey, a probability sample of the Swedish populati on aged 16 years and older was interviewed. Frequent headache was defi ned as a positive answer to the question, ''Have you (during the last 2 weeks) had recurrent headache or migraine?'' Work stress was studied for two indices: physical work stress and mental work stress. The phy sical work stress index contained measurements of seven working condit ions, and the mental work stress index contained measurements of three working conditions. The proportion of persons who reported frequent h eadache was greater among women than men, and frequent headache was mo st common in the age group 25 to 44 years. The logistic regression ana lyses showed that both physical and mental work stress were strongly a ssociated with frequent headache among both men and women even after c ontrolling for potential confounders. The associations between work st ress and frequent headache may be dose-dependent. Heavy mental work st ress was most strongly associated with frequent headache among men (od ds ratio 3.03 [1.92 to 4.78]) while heavy physical work stress was mos t strongly associated with frequent headache among women (odds ratio 3 .48 [1.13 to 10.65]). Improved working conditions could be one way of preventing headache, thereby decreasing individual suffering and emplo yer as well as public expense.